The wavy-haired center fielder looked a lot like Lagares, the man who had just been placed on the disabled list and who he had replaced.

And for the Mets, it was finally an easy night. After the drudge of playing consecutive 14 inning games Friday and Saturday, followed by the temperate burden of only 11 Sunday, they coasted to a victory.

“It was great for us to be able to sit back and relax for a little while,” Terry Collins said.
The manager saw the club wrap up its fourth win in this five game series. The Mets, floundering a week ago after having fired its hitting coach, has now won six of its last seven games.

The Phillies proved an appropriate panacea for what ailed them. Stuck in the basement of the National League East, the Mets feasted on the bottom-feeders.

Bartolo Colon threw seven innings, allowing just two runs, and the Mets’ lead grew throughout the late innings, unlike the weekend when the two clubs nudged in a stalemate like two magnets unable to come apart. After 57 innings, the Mets were finally able to move on.

“It’s a great start,” Collins said. “To go through what we went through, we’re tired. I’m not going to make any bones about it. This team’s tired.”

Wilmer Flores, the lanky shortstop, was the offensive star. He doubled in two runs during a breakout fifth that helped the Mets jump to a five run lead on Phillies starter Roberto Hernandez. Then, in the ninth, he added a grand slam and finished the game with six RBI — sextupling his season’s total.

But den Dekker’s contributions stood out.

Sunday, the Mets ran Lagares through a set of examinations with their training staff. He had been a late scratch from the previous day’s lineup with a ribcage spasm. Now there was the possibility of him playing that afternoon.

“You gotta be honest,” Terry Collins said he told him. “Because if it gets worse it’s not two weeks, it could be four.”

Lagares showed no signs of injury, and the training staff saw no reason to hold him. So when the Mets began their game with the Phillies, he was in the lineup and in center field.

But after 10 innings, and feeling pain in the same area, he was pulled out. And today, after an MRI revealed a right intercostal strain, the club placed him on the 15-day disabled list.

The length Lagares’ absence is not yet determined and Collins does not hide that it may be more than the minimum 15 days.

His absence will cause manifold issues for the Mets, as it did when he missed 16 days in April with a hamstring strain. Aside from his stellar defense in center field, Lagares, hitting .288 with a .754 OPS this season, had set himself as the team’s leadoff hitter.

Now, Collins must find a new one.

Though den Dekker started there tonight, he may not be a long-term solution. But Collins will give him playing time. Always an exemplary outfielder, at one point last spring, before he broke his wrist, den Dekker was a top prospect for the Mets.

“He was the guy,” Collins said. “I had minor league guys telling me at one time he and Juan were neck and neck in center field. We’ve seen what Matt can do defensively. We’re not afraid to put him out there.”